The Life of a Sig Op

[sigspig]

When did you graduate? I have been at CFSCE for 2 years now and I have only seen 5 ppl graduate without their SQ(they had to sign a waiver) when I first got there. Now they must complete their SQ before coming fortheir 3's. I have personaly send back 3 students to Borden because they didn't have their SQ. This is fairly new but they must have completed SQ before coming on their 3's.

 

[Canadian Sig]

We were the class that graduated and then went directly to Op Athena Roto 0 so that would have been 2 1/2 years ago. Some of us have already done our second tour and they still make noises about sending us on SQ..lol

 

[Sig_Des]

We were the class that graduated and then went directly to Op Athena Roto 0 so that would have been 2 1/2 years ago. Some of us have already done our second tour and they still make noises about sending us on SQ..lol

you went on Roto without your SQ? Man, CommRes is putting into an action a directive where they won't send Sigs to Ghan without PLQ!

 

[Canadian Sig]

you went on Roto without your SQ? Man, CommRes is putting into an action a directive where they won't send Sigs to Ghan without PLQ!

LOL...at 2 Sigs some of our MCpls dont even have PLQ yet. Can't see that happening around here. (at least not with 215's). Even if they all had PLQ we still wouldnt have enough man-power to support a Roto without privates.

 

[Radop]

When did you graduate? I have been at CFSCE for 2 years now and I have only seen 5 ppl graduate without their SQ(they had to sign a waiver) when I first got there. Now they must complete their SQ before coming fortheir 3's. I have personaly send back 3 students to Borden because they didn't have their SQ. This is fairly new but they must have completed SQ before coming on their 3's.

We ran at least 4 courses of 20+ students at the regiment to get ppl qualified here in the last 2 yrs!!!!

Cnd Sig,

You forgot to mention that we trained you guys to do that mission starting almost a year before roto 0.  In Pet, we were in the field on average 200 days a year.  Compare that to about 40 in Kingston, you can see that the difference is significant.  We also went to wainwright for 6 weeks to train in an environment that was suppose to prepare us for our duties in Afghanistan.  (don't exactly see how doing field training prepares you for urban warfare senario)  To give the readers digest version, we trained you to and beyond the SQ standard IMHO.

As for PLQ, this started quite a few years ago with people being promoted and not having their PLQ.  For a two year period, no sigs were put on a PLQ (or CLC back then) unless a unit used one of its spots to put them on it.  This ment that one less infanteer selected for ISCC, one less artillaryman, etc.  People at the regiment had no spots as the unit was at the time the black sheep of the Army world (1 CDHSR).  Even HQ and Sigs never got any positions.  We have been able to get some Cpls on courses the past few years but it has been far and few while relying on putting them on course as soon as they get promoted.

There is a new inititive that states you will be able to turn down 1 due to medical reasons but after that, you will attend or take of the leaf.  You also will only have 1.5 yrs to get qualified or face the same concequences.  There are far too many turning down course after course because they want to go to the one in Halifax or Esquimalt.  This is just wrong. 

 

[Canadian Sig]

We ran at least 4 courses of 20+ students at the regiment to get ppl qualified here in the last 2 yrs!!!!

Cnd Sig,

You forgot to mention that we trained you guys to do that mission starting almost a year before roto 0.... 

Actualy Radop my course didnt graduate until 7 weeks before the deployment so we missed all the mission specific stuff. We got 2 weeks of rushed training and then we were off on leave until deployment. Our course graduated mid to end June of 03 and we deployed in Aug of 03.

 

[Radop]

Right, there were around 10 of you that came to the Sqn at that time.  I thought you were with Russ up in the RRB section in wainwright.  Most of the reservists and new people went to rover section.  That was were most of the young guys went for some reason.  I know you weren't so young and your wife went to one of the out dets.  I would have made them camp staff so they would not have been put in harms way as much but I remember the CO telling us we would be getting the course out of Kingston for deployment with us.  I believe we brought up our concearns at that time.  His response was that he understood but we had to fill the positions with people.  With all the reservists and you new guys, I think we were still short people when we got over there.  After the rocket attack, I heard that 10 cpl/ptes put in to go home but were mostly turned down.  I know one higher rank that did go home though.

 

[Canadian Sig]

There were 16 of us that showed up and we all went to rover initialy but by the end I was the only rover left (the rest went to out dets). we would have been in less danger at the out dets as it turns out. I had way more excitment as a rover than any of the out det guys did. Thats a suprize about the requests to go home. I know none of us 16 wanted to leave. Who wound up going home? 

 

[Radop]

I will leave that one until I come up there to collect the drink you offered.  lol.  I may even buy some beers up there for you guys when I get promoted.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Umm haha.. Okaaay. I guess this helped. Thanks? lol.


So... .. aww. Basic. Then.. Kingston?! Remember - i know nothing.. wtf is PRETC?! ...

If anyone wants to actually talk with me.. and explain course by course if yah have time.. thatd be cool just add me to msn.

And drivers wheel? Crap.

Thanks...

*JESSO*

You might have already recieved an answer via email or MSN but just in case.  PRETC or PAT is when you sit and await your training.  YOu may or may not have to do this.  MY Dh was on PAT for 5 months in Borden before he started his Sig training in Kingston.

 

[mechanic_chick]

Thanks!

 

[Hoover]

Am sitting in PRETC right now. And let me tell you, they love to march you around! They stick the barracks on one side of the base and the building you spend the day in is half way to the other side of the base! You get there and then spend half the day in the smoking tent. The whole base apparently hates us because we do nothing all day!

All SigOps here in Borden are going on their SQ before QL3 and they are getting Driver training on the ML and the Milcot. Why those two? Who knows? 26 peeps here at the moment, and 24 on each course. So 24 going on April 26th, 2 going on August 18th with the rest who show up in the months to come.

There are 350 more people coming here in the next 4 weeks and it is overflowing already from this weeks inflow.They've got a 4th barracks set up. 2 for the males, 1 for the females plus another one. All the Sigs here got 26 Aptril for their QL3 start date except for two. Guess who?!! Me and one other guy! All luck of the draw! We got 18 August, and all our pre-MOC training will be done by 31 March, so that is 4.5 months in PRETC with your thumb up your butt, or you can request EWAT/OJT. You need at least 60 days between starting OJT and your MOC start date in order to be approved for OJT.

If anyone has any questions about PRETC send me a line.

 

[canadianblue]

PRETC, spent a week in it, can't say much good about it. I spent the last week on paperwork getting into the unit, now I'm heading out to Gagetown to finish up SQ which will only take 11 days and have to sign in again. PRETC, only nice thing about it is that as fire picket you have more freedom, even though I like having evenings and weekends off, it does get boring to simply sit around most of the day, only being able to do something once in a while. I'm probably going to take my remaining leave after my SQ, and will hopefully only have to really spend a month in PRETC. The accomodations really aren't that great, still don't have much privacy, and it seems that they usually will stick english members with french members so you can rarely understand what your roomate is talking about. I'd much rather be on my QL3's. Hoover, thats pretty crappy about your QL3, I'm going on April the 26th.

Hey Hoover, I think I might have met you, send me a PM.

 

[Hoover]

Yeah signing in takes a day! 3 days if you want because you are on PRETC and have nothing better to do. Friggin right about nothing to do. We should be getting isolation pay, this place is closer to the north pole than Alert is!! Fire picket consists of all night watching movies then you get the next day off. It's one big slumber party....

Frig the place is 80% French. Which means alot of hot women but you can't understand a lick of what their saying..

 

[Sig_Des]

Frig the place is 80% French. Which means alot of hot women but you can't understand a lick of what their saying..

Biens, seulement si tu parle pas Francais!

Besides, you can always find ways to communicate.

 

[Hoover]

Oh yeah if you are coming to PRETC in the next couple weeks you're out of luck for a little while. They shipped most of the hotties off to Valcatraz for SQ this Wednesday so we gotta wait for the next batch to show up which should be in 2-3 weeks at most..

 

[canadianblue]

Don't worry, most of the french hotties did the same course as I did, and they'll be back in two weeks. Both of my room mates were french, they never seem to organize any of the quarters around here so its just a huge cluster &^%#. Usually they make a timing for lets say 0700, then we usually wait around till 0800 till they finally tell us what to do, and usually they change the original plans for the day. When I was signing in I spent about an hour getting a briefing, then seven hours sitting around waiting to figure out whats going on. Personally, I think they should find something for personal to do instead of PRETC, Job training with a unit, firearms training, langauge training, etc. Anything other then PRETC so that new recruits out of basic can continue to improve themselves.

 

[Hoover]

Hey trooper shouldn't you be humping a load of green washings and a shoota around right now? 

Dunno what day you left but all this last week we've been doing PT all day, even swimming in the afternoons.

Yeah signing in was fun.. went to give us one of the briefings and didn't realize until part way through that we got the same briefing the day prior.

Find something to do.. yeah! If they got the people to run weapons training and language courses for us I'd rather those people be teaching QL3s so we can get out of PRETC quicker

 

[canadianblue]

Sorry, I signed into the base one week, and signed out so I could go to Gagetown the next. No PT to be done at all for me while I was there. I wish I could go to Kingston right after, but still have what two months and a half left at PRETC.

 

[Bull_STR]

Ahh PRETC in Bordom.  How I remember those days. 

It is even worse if you have no car.  But I only did that for a few months.

Really though guys I was there on and off for 5 months.  While there I was shipped out to Gagetown for SQ, then I did my Driver Training, some firearms training and as much PT as I could.

Dont complain about it. You are still getting paid.

But to be honest use this time to get into the best physical shape as you can cause once you get to Kingston it is all GO Go GO PT.  PT Every Morning at 05:55L  Plus Rucks on Wednesdays Afternoon.

Enjoy Bordom.  It is not that bad.  YOu get to sit around relax as much as you can.  Take a few courses etc.  I know it is crappy but remember hurry up and wait.

BTW Say Hi to Sgt Partrige for me.  Tell him Pte Bull says Hi and I am doing great.  If he is still in charge of the Sig Ops that is.

Hell if you want to get a head start on your couse then PM me and I will see about emailing you a few copies of the course material for Sigs.  I know I wish I had someone with that info when I was sitting there bored out of my mind.

Best of luck to you.  Ohh Shoot one last thing.  For those that are on the April Course here in Kingston.  You will have a great Newfie by the name of EVANS.  Get to know the guy.  real good shit.